G'day Mate, from the Dag!

A Kiwi friend turned me on today to a listing of New Zealand Kiwi Slang
.
Some of it seems quite normal, to me, or to be typical Brit Slang, as in the use of bonnet and boot for Car hood and trunk. Some we Americans would consider not for polite speech ,as with the use of the sh_t and f___ word.

All in all some interesting stuff. Finally found where the Crossword puzzle answer Ute for Utility Vehicle comes from.

Well, Cheerio, for now!

Don

p.s. dag: humorous person, joker, comedian, hard case (hard case: joker, comedian, witty person)!

The Apostrophe Protection Society

Unsure of when and where to use an Apostrophe (Not when pluralizing words) in English, check out the Apostrophe Protection Society for all your apostrophizing needs!

Don

Wordlustitude - a Blog by Mark Peters

One of the most recently published (a year late, another story) issues of Verbatim, Vol. XXI, No 1, Spring 2006 Introduced me to Mark Peters and his Wordlustitude Blog which has many Word links, including links to aricles he has written for various publications and Posts of various coined/nonce words.

For instance:

hobbitcest

noun. What happens when there are two consenting hobbits and no limits.

Real citation: “Interests: 32: aft, afting, ass full throttle, bath tubs, berries n' cream, butterflies, candles, crying, hard thrusting!, hobbit sex, hobbitcest..."
(http://sweet-pip.livejournal.com/profile)

Made-up citation: "If I'm elected, I will oppose all forms of filth and perversion, including hobbitcest and men who don't wash their hands after peeing."

Well worth checking out,
Don

AskOxford: Words

Curtesy of this week's (07/29/07) New York Times Magazine in an Arcticle by Erin McKeon, Corpus, I have discovered a new Word page. It is at AskOxford.com and is a delightful page of links to all kinds of answers to English Language Word Questions such as:

What comes after once, twice, thrice?

The answer, it turns out, is 'Nothing'.

There are many more such tidbits.

Erin McKeon's article on the Oxford English Corpus and its uses is also well worth reading.

Erin is the Editor of Verbatim® Magazine.

Don

Samples of Wicked Words from the Wickedary

by Mary Daly with Jane Caputi.

• ACADEMENTIA n: normal state of persons
  in academia, marked by varying and progressive
  degrees; irreversible deterioration of faculties
  of intellectuals
• BATTLE-AX, n: a Raging, Dreadless, Unconquerable
  Crone BORED, CHAIRMAN OF THE n: any bore-ocratically
  appointed bore who occupies a chair--a position
  which enables him to bore others all the
  more
• CAT/EGORICAL IMPERATIVE n: the Call of
  the Wild; the Summons of the Weird, conveyed
  through the Mediumship of a Feline Familiar
• COCKALORUM n: a self-important little
  cock. Examples: Napoleon, Andy Warhol, Fiorello
  La Guardia, Mickey Mouse
• COCK-AND-BULL STORY n: patriarchal history
• CRONE n: Great Hag of History, long-lasting
  one; Survivor of the perpetual witchcraze
  of patriarchy
• CRONE-OLOGY n: Radical Feminist chronology
  
• HAG n: a Witch, Fury, Harpy who haunts
  the Hedges/Boundaries of partiarchy, frightening
  fools and summoning Weird Wandering women
  into the Wild
• POSITIVELY REVOLTING HAG: a stunning,
  beauteous Crone; one who inspires positive
  revulsion from phallic institutions and
  morality, inciting Others to Acts of Pure
  Lust

English words with Vowels in Alphabetical order:

Abstemiously and arsenious are two well known words with the vowels in proper order. There is also facetiously.
Now Saul Ricklin has come across the somewhat obsolete word, "affectiously" which also has the vowels in order. One in reverse is syrup of ipecac.

affectiously = AFFECTIONATELY, AFFECTUOUSLY; earnestly, cordially, kindly.
1430 LYDG., Chron. Troy III. xxii, Theyr gladnesse when he hath perceyued Spake vnto theim full affectiously. 1755 JOHNSON, Affectiously, in an affecting manner. Dict.

Old Rhymes:

Does anyone know any more of these from long ago?

• One series:
  
  • Knife and a fork, bottle and a cork. That's the way you spell New York
  • Chick in a car, and the car can't go. That's the way you spell Chicago
• Some old Lewis Carol:
  
  • T'was midnight on the ocean and the sun was shining bright. I hopped into a taxi cab and rode that day all night.
    [Must have been in the Artic in Summer!]
• tongue stumblers:
  
  • Mares eat oats and does eat oats and little lambs eat ivy. A kid'll eat ivy, too. Wouldn't you?
    ...[From] part of a popular nonsense song of 1943 called "Mairzy Doats"--per ASCAP Hit Tunes booklet, written by Milton Drake, Al Hoffman,and Jerry Livingston. The beginning is more or less rendered:
    Mairzy doats and doazy doats, and little lamzi tivy. A kiddely tivy too, Wood'n you?
    - Submitted by Elaine Chubb
  • I thrice thrust a thistle through the thick of my thumb. (A favorite of my Grandfather, who knew the rest of it and rattled it all off well.)
  • One fine day in the middle of the night,
    Two dead men got up to fight.
    One blind man to see fair play,
    One dumb man to shout "Hooray!"
    A lame donkey came galloping by
    and kicked the blind man in the eye. - Submitted by Elaine Chubb